Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The sound of cars rushing in the street right now might have no special meaning to those who aren't into sports. But I know the Europa League final is starting in less than two hours, so trust me when I tell you Portugal is about to turn into a ghost country.

Benfica or Chelsea: tell me, who do you think is getting the sweet cup? (Or in case it already happened by the time you read this: are you happy with the winner?) All I know is everyone who's coming to watch the match here may need something sweet to relax, so why not mini-pavlovas?

On a tray with greaseproof paper shape small circles (you can use the back of a spoon) - leave the edges higher, so you can pour the cream in the middle later. Turn down the oven to 120ºC. Bake them for 30 minutes. When they're done, let them cool down.

To prepare the white chocolate cream, whisk 4 egg yolks and 55g of caster sugar. At the same time, bring 200g of cream to a simmer, pour the cream onto the egg and sugar mixture and mix. Heat the mixture back in the saucepan for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time. Pour it onto a bowl with 200g of chopped white chocolate. Keep stirring until the chocolate melts completely. Let it cool in the fridge. When it's time to use it, beat it with a mixer until it's creamy and lighter.

Fill the middle of the mini-pavlovas with the white chocolate cream. Finally, add some colour and fruity flavour with your favourite jam. I used meia.dúzia's strawberry and raspberry extra jam with vanilla and pear extra jam with muscatel douro (from the prize I won - again, thank you so much).

50 comments:

Love these! We rarely make pavlovas, but need to more often. Great job. I don't follow soccer (as we call it in the US), but I certainly know how popular it is throughout the rest of the world. Anyway, good post - thanks.

Thank you! Yes, Portugal forgets about everything and football/soccer is on. Many people have even noticed how major speeches were given by the Prime Minister when important matches were going to happen (so people would forget about the bad news).

The same happens in Portugal with some dishes. Codfish with cream used to be a favourite in restaurants, now it's being replaced in many places by cod with an onion, bell pepper and tomato dressing... I bet cod with cream will come back to the top list in a few years. :P

Alex your little mini Pavlovas are beautiful. I actually have not made one yet because of the time it needs in the oven but looking at your simple recipe and the addition of the cream and jellies it is just delightful. This would be a perfect dessert for a gathering. Have a super weekend Alex and take care, BAM